Sunsoft
Sunsoft (サンソフト San sofuto?) is a Japanese Videogame developer founded on April 16, 1971 as a division of Sun Corporation, itself a division of Sun Electronics, or Sun Denshi Corporation (サン電子株式会社 San Denshi kabushikigaisha?) in Japan (its U.S. subsidiary operated under the name Sunsoft of America, though games they published showed a logo that read only SUNSOFT). They are the actual owners of Telenet Japan's game catalog including the Valis series. History Sunsoft's history in video games began in arcades with two video games released in 1978: Block Challenger and Block Perfect. They later had several arcade hits in the early 1980s such as Arabian, Ikki and Kangaroo. In the latter half of the 1980s, Sunsoft began developing original games and technology for the home video game console market, with emphasis mostly on the NES. Sunsoft had gone international at that time, and it had the publishing might to secure major licenses of the day (such as Batman and The Addams Family). Outside Japan, the definite golden era for the company was the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), on which their games were widely considered state of the art in graphical and aural prowess. Sunsoft was slow to transition to 16-bit consoles, however, releasing several NES and Famicom titles that went unnoticed at launch, and have only been rediscovered by enthusiasts recently, such as: Ufouria (Hebereke), Mr. Gimmick (Gimmick!), and Journey to Silius (Raf World). Additionally, a number of Sega games, including Fantasy Zone, Fantasy Zone II and After Burner, have been ported for Nintendo consoles by Sunsoft. The games Sunsoft produced in the 16-bit era were no longer as polished or cutting-edge, the licenses were less prominent, and no new hit games appeared. Finally, in 1995, they heavily restructured in the face of bankruptcy, eventually resurfacing with a scant number of video games for the PlayStation such as Monster Seed and games for the Game Boy Color. From 1994 to 1998, Sunsoft attempted the fighting game craze by releasing four fighting games: Sugoi Hebereke for the Super Famicom (1994), Galaxy Fight: Universal Warriors for the Neo Geo (1995), Waku Waku 7 for the Neo Geo (1996), and finally, Astra Super Stars for Sega ST-V-based arcades (1998). Prior to its re-emergence in the domestic USA, the last games released and published by this company state-side were Eternal Eyes, Blaster Master: Blasting Again, Blaster Master: Enemy Below and Power Quest. Citing several factors, like yet-another "next generation" console transition, and high overhead production costs, Sunsoft closed its offices in America and Europe, and initiated a re-organization. Sunsoft has continued to operate out of its corporate headquarters in Japan, developing and publishing role-playing video games, pachinko games and mahjong games and mobile platform titles in partnership with other companies such as NTT DoCoMo and Yahoo! In the 1990s, Sunsoft joined forces with Acclaim Entertainment to handle ad sales rights to Sunsoft's video games for game consoles. On September 14, 2006, Nintendo announced that the developer was a partner on the Wii's Virtual Console. Although this relationship with Nintendo took more than three years to release any games, on December 4, 2009, Sunsoft announced that they were partnering with GaijinWorks to bring Blaster Master to Virtual Console that month for 500 Wii Points. Also as of December 10, 2009, the company has also acquired Telenet Japan's entire game library On February 6, 2010, Sunsoft announced the release of Blaster Master: Overdrive for WiiWare, 2 days prior to its release. Afterwards, Sunsoft also released Aero the Acro-Bat, Aero the Acro-Bat 2, and Ufouria (Hebereke) on Virtual Console. List of games *Acme Animation Factory (SNES) *Adian no Tsue (Famicom Disk System) *Aero the Acro-Bat (SNES, Sega Genesis) (developed by Iguana Entertainment) *Aero the Acro-Bat 2 (SNES, Sega Genesis) (developed by Iguana Entertainment) *Albert Odyssey (SNES) *Albert Odyssey 2 *Albert Odyssey: Legend of Eldean *Arabian (Arcade) *Super Arabian (NES) *Astra Super Stars (Sega Saturn) *Atlantis no Nazo (NES) *Barbapapa (PlayStation) *Banbam (Arcade) *Batman (Sega Genesis) *Batman (NES, Game Boy) *Batman (TurboGrafx-16) *Batman: Return of the Joker (NES, Sega Genesis (titled as Revenge of the Joker), Game Boy) *Barcode World (NES) *Benkei Gaiden (TurboGrafx-16) *Blaster Master series: **Blaster Master (Chô Wakusei Senki Metafight in Japan) (NES) **Blaster Master Boy (Game Boy; possible conversion of Hudson Soft's Bomber Boy) **Blaster Master 2 (Sega Genesis) (developed by Software Creations) **Blaster Master: Enemy Below (Metafight EX in Japan) (Game Boy Color) **Blaster Master: Blasting Again (Blaster Master in Japan) (PlayStation) **Blaster Master: Overdrive (Wii) *Block Challenger (also known as Block Perfect or Galaxy Force) (Arcade) *Bubble and Squeak (Sega Genesis) *Bugs Bunny Rabbit Rampage (SNES) *City Hunter (TurboGrafx-16) *Clock Tower 3 (PlayStation 2, published by Capcom in America and Europe) *Chameleon Twist (Nintendo 64) *Chameleon Twist 2 (Nintendo 64) *Cosmopolis (Arcade) *Daedalian Opus (Game Boy) *Daffy Duck: The Marvin Missions (SNES, Game Boy) *Dai San Wakusei (roughly translated as The Third Planet) (Arcade) *Daze Before Christmas (SNES, Sega Mega DriveGenesis) *Dead Zone (Famicom Disk System) *Deae Tonosama Appare Ichiban (SNES) *Death and Return of Superman (SNES, Sega Genesis) *Disney's Beauty and the Beast: Belle's Quest (Sega Genesis) *Disney's Beauty and the Beast: Roar of the Beast (Sega Genesis) *Eternal Eyes (PlayStation) *Fester's Quest (NES) *Final Fantasy Adventure (Game Boy; re-release of a Square title from the Mana series) *The Final Fantasy Legend (Game Boy; re-release of a Square title from the SaGa series) *Final Fantasy Legend II (Game Boy; re-release of a Square title from the SaGa series) *Final Fantasy Legend III (Game Boy; re-release of a Square title from the SaGa series) *Firepower 2000 (SNES) *Flashback (Super Famicom) *Freedom Force (NES) *Funky Fish (Arcade) *Galaxy Fight: Universal Warriors (Neo Geo, Sega Saturn) *Gimmick! (NES) *Hissatsu Pachinko Collection (Arcade) *Gremlins 2: The New Batch (NES) *The Guiness (Arcade) *Hebereke (Ufouria) series (NES, SNES, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Arcade) *Ikki (also known as Boomerang and Farmer's Rebellion) (Arcade, NES) *Initial D: Takahashi Ryosuke no Typing Saisoku Riron (PlayStation 2) *Journey to Silius (NES) (known as Raf World in Japan) *Kangaroo (Arcade) *Lemmings (NES, SNES, Sega Genesis) *Lionex (Nintendo Vs.) *Logical (NES, Game Boy Color) *Looney Tunes (Game Boy, Game Boy Color) *Looney Tunes B-Ball (SNES, published by Acclaim Entertainment) *Maharajah (NES) *Marchen Veil (Famicom Disk System) (original version developed and released by System Sacom for the MSX) *Markham (Arcade) *Mitokoumon II: Sekai Manyuuki (NES) *Monster Seed (PlayStation) *Moomin's Tale (Game Boy Color) *Monkey Magic (PlayStation) *Myst (Sega Saturn) *Nankin no Adventure (Famicom Disk System) *Nantettatte!! Baseball (NES) *Nazoler Land (Famicom Disk System) *Out Live (PC Engine) *Out Live: Be Eliminate Yesterday (PlayStation) *Panorama Cotton (Sega Genesis) (developed by Success Corp.) *Pescatore (NES) - unreleased) *Pettan Pyuu (Arcade) *Phantom 2040 (Sega Genesis, SNES and Sega Game Gear) *Pirates of Dark Water (Sega Genesis, SNES) *Platoon (Nintendo Vs. Series, NES) *Power Quest (developed by Japan System Supply) (Game Boy Color) *Project S-11 (Game Boy Color) *Puma Street Soccer (PlayStation) *Pyokotan no Dai Meiro (developed by Japan System Supply) (NES) *Real Myst (PC) *Ripple Island (NES) *Road Runner's Death Valley Rally (SNES) *Route 16 (Arcade, NES) *Runaway (Arcade) *Scooby-Doo Mystery (Sega Genesis, SNES) *Shanghai: True Valor (PlayStation) *Shanghai 3D Cube (Nintendo 3DS) *Shounen Ninja Sasuke (SNES) *Sky Kid (NES) (Arcade version by Namco) *Speedy Gonzales: Los Gatos Bandidos (SNES, published by Acclaim Entertainment) *Spy Hunter (NES) *Stratovox (also known as Speak & Rescue) (Arcade) *Strength & Skill - Guiness Book of Records (Arcade) *Sunman (NES) - Unreleased *Super Air Diver (SNES) *Super Boy Allan (Famicom Disk System) (developed by Asmik) *Super Spy Hunter (also known as Battle Formula) (NES) *Super Fantasy Zone (Sega Genesis) *Superman (Sega Genesis) *T.R.A.G. (PlayStation) *Tel-Tel Mahjong (Sega Genesis) *Tel-Tel Stadium (Sega Genesis) *Tenka no Goikenban: Mitokoumon (NES) *Tōkaidō Gojūsan-tsugi (NES) *Tough Turf (Arcade) *Trip World (Game Boy) *Waku Waku 7 (Neo Geo, Sega Saturn) *The Wing of Madoola (NES) *World Heroes (SNES) *Xenophobe (NES) *Yogi Bear's Gold Rush (Game Boy) *Zero the Kamikaze Squirrel (SNES, Sega Genesis) (developed by Iguana Entertainment) External links *Sunsoft's Japanese homepage *Sunsoft's American homepage *Sunsoft's profile on Mobygames *Sunsoft's profile in Giantbomb *Sunsoft's Facebook page Category:Companies